operation was coordinated from the naval headquarters
The Nigerian Navy on
Monday in Lagos paraded six suspected pirates it arrested for hijacking an oil
tanker.
The Chief of Naval
Training and Operations, Rear Adm. Henry Babalola, told journalists that the
suspecte
usanews.cc d pirate
s were arrested around Sao Tome after the gang had hijacked the
vessel off the coa
usatimes.cc st of Cote d’Ivoire.
Babalola said the arrest
was made after a fierce gun battle with naval forces that left a suspect dead.
”Before the security
forces got to the hijacked vessel, two crew members, an Indian and a Pakistan,
had been kidnapped and taken away by two of the gang members.
”The hijackers, after
sighting the naval ships, refused to surrender, shut downfall the oil tanker
and opened fire on the security agents.
”It was at that point
the deceased pirate
news was gunned down because he came out of the ship to confront
the boarding party,” he said.
The Naval chief said
that the operation was coordinated from the naval headquarters in Abuja and
commended navies in the neighbouring countries for their cooperation.
Babalola warned pirates
to desist from such illegal acts or face the consequences.
The captain of the
hijacked tanker, Capt. Prilliea Krishna, expressed appreciation to the Nigerian
Navy for coming to the crew’s rescue.
He pleaded with the navy
authorities to help find the two crew members being held hostage by the gang.
The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pirates had hijacked a Saudi Arabian tanker, MT
MAXIMUS, chartered by a South Korean company.
NAN also gathered that
the vessel, which was renamed MT ELVIS-5 by the hijackers to conceal it, was
loaded with 4,700 metric tons of diesel.
NAN learnt that the
Nigerian Navy deployed three naval ships, NNS OKPABANA, NNS CENTENARY and NNS
SAGBAMA to smoke out the hijackers.
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